Goodies

One thing I forgot to mention in my last blog entry...adding myself as a 'designer' on Ravelry inspired me to write up the pattern for the Arabesque baby blanket I made last year and make it available for free. (Otherwise, I would have had only one design on my designer's page, which looks pretty lame. Admittedly, only two designs also looks pretty lame, but it's much better than having only one.) You can download the new pattern (in PDF format) from the sidebar. Hopefully, if anybody makes it, you'll drop me a line to let me know what you think of it.

To my utter astonishment, someone on Ravelry began to make a wrap using the stitch pattern because she says, "I just love the design!" - WOW! (She seems to have since changed her mind and deleted the project, but hey, it's the thought that counts.) CatBookMom thanked me for the pattern - you're welcome! As well, twelve people have put it in their Ravelry queue (waiting list). This makes me both completely flattered and excited, and unbelievably nervous at the same time. The absolute topper is that four Ravelrers have favourited the blanket project itself, and one of them - are you ready for this? - is Norah Gaughan.

Yes.

It's been several days since it happened, and I'm still plotzing about it.

And I got a giftie! Mercedes at the shop was getting herself some patterns and thought she'd get an extra copy of one that she figured I'd like. What a sweetie, eh? It's Desert Sun, from Goddess Knits. It's really beautiful - I don't know when exactly I'm going to make it, or what I will make it from, or whom it will be for, but it's definitely on the list.

In other news, the silver lining in DH's job running out is that he is now free on Wednesday nights. And that meant that I hightailed it over to Lettuce Knit last week for the SnB. Fun times, fun times!

Finally, as you can probably tell from the seriously long delay since my last blog post, I've been spending a lot of time on Ravelry. However, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with entering projects, stash and needles, so I think I'm slipping into a bit of a routine now and will probably spend a little less time there. It's still awesome, though. I'm finding people with the same knitting interests as me (hi, Brigitte!) and that means getting to see really cool projects. (Which of course means that I have now probably achieved PABLE - Project Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.)

Larry's Cabled Cashmere Pullover

So I took the two skeins of navy alpaca back to the shop to see if they would kill me if I tried to return them. Mercedes was all for it until she realised it had been a sale item - apparently the rule is, no return of sale items. She felt really bad about saying no and, from the look on her face, I'm sure I could have persuaded her to break the rule and make an exception for me, but I didn't mind in the slightest. It's a fair rule, and by enforcing it, she clamped down on my wishy-washiness and enabled me to make a decision: now I have to keep the yarn, so I might as well continue with my plan of making striped sleeves. I will hopefully get around to casting on for the first sleeve (with the navy) soon.

Herdis for niece

This progressed a wee bit more before I cannibalized the needles for another project. (I have no shame.) But then, after I was done with that, I picked Herdis back up again and finished the back:



I made an executive decision about the height of the back - it's supposed to be 16.5" long, and when you hold it up so that gravity is working on it (as it would when it's actually being worn), it certainly is 16.5" long. However, lying down, it's much less. (Such is the way of working with cotton.) I decided to pay attention to the worn-on-the-body measurement as opposed to the lying-on-the-ground measurement. I think this was the right decision.

I'm now in the process of casting on for the left front.

Fair isle tank top for DD2

This is the project for which I have been stealing needles from other projects (and ignoring other projects, too). Totally, totally worth it. I decided to use the Kool Kotton I had bought earlier in the year for another project for the main colour, and, because Kool Kotton isn't available in the contrast colour I wanted, some TLC Cotton Plus.

When I showed it to my husband after working on it for most of the day two Thursdays ago (I probably would have been able to complete it if I hadn't f**ked it up so many times, but as it is, I had a fair bit to be able to show him), he burst out into superlative praise.

I did the 12-month size, and then started on the 6-month. That was finished this weekend, and I tried it on my (soon-to-be-6-months-old-where-the-hell-does-the-time-go) baby daughter for a photo shoot. I think the effect is really adorable, and I got some meltingly cute shots of my baby. Alas, as much as I am chomping at the bit to share them with the entire world, I'm going to be submitting the pattern to Knitty, so unfortunately you will have to wait. (Unless the pattern gets rejected, in which case I will just self-publish it.)

Like, totally top

I found what I think will work as a substitute yarn! Mystik DK from Estelle. (I tried to take a picture, but it turned out badly.) What I'm actually thinking of doing is swatching this Mystik up to see if I get the same gauge as I did with the (discontinued) Schaffhauser St-Tropez Câblé that I originally wanted to use. If I do, then I'm thinking of using the St-Tropez for the model piece and recommending the Mystic DK as a substitute when I submit the pattern. Hopefully, this plan will work.

Branching Out for DD1's teacher

DD1 has spoken - we are going with the 'violet' colourway. The shop didn't have it, so they ordered it in at breakneck speed and it was in before the weekend.

The yarn is knitting up into just the most gorgeously soft, gossamery fabric, but it is heck to work with - I don't know about you, but I find fine laceweight yarn on 5mm needles to be awkward. So it's going pretty slowly. I'm willing to accept that, though, because the finished project is verrry nice:



I've set myself a goal of doing one 10-row repeat every day. At that rate, I'll be done by early-mid November - loads of time.

Foot-pampering socks for moi

This has come out again recently as something to do while hanging around supervising my older daughter. We've had gorgeous weather around here lately, and so we've been taking advantage of it by spending a lot of time at the local playgrounds. There's not much for me to do while DD1 clambers all over the ladders and bars and slides and whatnot, so when she's doing that, I've been working on the sock. (Naturally, the sock loses out when she wants to swing or play catch.) So it's starting to see some measurable progress:

(Still no steeking on the Elizabethan Jacket, though, sorry, Carrie K!)